The Caves of Fear: A Rick Brant Science-Adventure Story Read online

  CHAPTER II

  The Cipher Message

  Barby, Rick, and Scotty were in the library when Hartson Brant walkedin. They were reduced to the point of staring at each other helplesslybecause of the magnitude of the task that confronted them.

  The famous scientist, who looked like an older version of his son,greeted them with a smile. "What is this, a meeting of the Silent Three?I can't ever remember finding you all together when one of you wasn'ttalking."

  Rick handed him the cable. "What do you make of that, Dad?"

  Hartson Brant scanned it quickly. "From Chahda, in Singapore, and incipher. Am I supposed to gather that you don't have the key to thecipher?"

  "That's right," Scotty said. He held up a heavy volume called_Cryptography for the Student_. It was the only book on the subject inthe scientist's library. "We've been going through this, trying to findsome kind of clue. Honest, it's impossible."

  "There are so many codes and ciphers," Barby added. "Dozens. And it sayssome of them can only be broken by days of work, by experts."

  "There's not an expert in the house, either," Rick concluded. "I didn'tthink, when Bill called us up about it, that Chahda would use a code wecouldn't figure out, but I didn't expect a page like that."

  Hartson Brant read through the cable again. "How do you know you can'tfigure it out? Perhaps a little reasoning will clear the air. Chahdamust have put a key in the message somewhere. How about this 'L' infront of his name?"

  "That's right," Barby said excitedly. "That must mean something, becausehis name is Chahda Sundararaman. There isn't an L in it anywhere."

  The scientist handed the cable back to Rick. "I'm about as curious as Ican get," he said, "but I refuse to think any more about it until youhand me the clear version. I agree that Chahda wouldn't send a code youcouldn't solve, so my advice is put the code book away. You won't needit, I'm sure. This isn't any code you'll find in there."

  He started out of the room, then paused at the door, his eyes twinkling."Will you have dinner at the table with us, or shall I ask mother tobreak out some emergency rations so you can stay on the job?"

  "We'll eat with the family," Scotty replied. "We can keep on thinkingwhile we eat, can't we?"

  Rick watched his father wink at Barby, then walk toward the kitchen."Dad's right," he announced. "He must be. So let's put the book back andstart figuring this out. The answer probably is easy as pie once we findthe key."

  "How about starting with that odd letter?" Scotty asked. "That has tomean something."

  "L is the twelfth letter in the alphabet," Barby offered. "Does thatmean anything?"

  Rick shook his head. "Not to me. But let's start from there, anyway.Maybe the twelfth group of numbers has a clue."

  He counted rapidly across the number groups. "That group is 4399693. Nowwhat?"

  Scotty suggested, "Substitute letters for the numbers. That would makeit DCIIFIC. That doesn't mean anything."

  "Maybe you counted the wrong way," Barby said thoughtfully. "Count downthe columns instead of across."

  Rick did so. "That's 8337373. Substitute and it comes out ... let'ssee ... HCCGCGC. Nothing there, either."

  Scotty had a pad of paper and a pencil and was making idle doodles. "I'mtrying to recall. When did Chahda learn anything about codes?"

  Rick thought for a moment. "He never did, that I know of," he saidfinally.

  Barby stood up. "Well, I'm going to shower and change before dinner,"she announced. "But I'll keep thinking. I have an idea that talkingabout it won't help much. If Dad and Rick are right about his using acode we're sure to know, it must be staring us in the face and we're tooblind to see it."

  "Good idea," Rick agreed. "Let's break this up and each think about it.If we each search our memories, maybe we'll come up with a clue."

  Barby went upstairs and Scotty retired to his favorite seat on theporch. But Rick felt that he could think better on his feet. A glance athis watch told him he had over an hour and a half before dinner. Hewaved at Scotty and walked across the grass toward the gray stonelaboratory buildings. Professor Weiss was in his office working on somemathematical theory he was developing. It was away over Rick's head. Fora moment he thought of posing the problem to the little professor, thenthought better of it and passed by the lab on the south side. He skirtedthe woods and crossed Pirate's Field, so called because local legendsaid the famed woman pirate, Anne Bonney, had once landed there with hergang of cutthroats. He paused for a moment and studied the fused sandleft by the terrific heat when the first moon rocket was launched, butthe barren patch gave him no inspiration.

  Staying on the shore path, he walked slowly toward the back of theisland and presently came out at the tidal flats. The tide was out,leaving the rocks exposed. He sat down at the edge of the low bluffabove the flats and stared into the patches of water.

  It was a hard job, trying to recall every detail of his friendship withthe little Hindu boy, but he tried. It had started in Bombay when Rickand Scotty were on their way to Tibet with Weiss and Zircon to set upthe radar relay station for message transmission via the moon. Whentheir equipment was stolen, it was Chahda who took the lead in findingit again. They had been amused by the beggar boy who had educatedhimself with an old copy of _The World Almanac_. His ability to quoteanything from the "Alm-in-ack," as he called it, in English that wassometimes pretty funny, was really astonishing. Then, at the Lost City,he had more than proved his courage and loyalty, and the Spindriftershad sponsored his visit to America as a reward.

  For a while Chahda had attended school in America, then he had gone tothe Pacific with the Spindrift expedition to Kwangara Island. Aftersalvaging the remains of an ancient temple from one hundred fathoms ofwater--not to mention the treasure that was found--the Spindrifters hadreturned home. But Chahda had elected to remain in Hawaii with ProfessorWarren of the Pacific Ethnographic Society. Later, he had gone with theWarren scientific expedition to the South Seas, and Barby, Rick, andScotty had joined the party in New Caledonia. After completing part ofthe expedition's work, the trawler _Tarpon_ had returned to NewCaledonia where the young people had solved the mystery of _The PhantomShark_. When the three Spindrifters returned home, Chahda had taken airpassage to Bombay to see his family.

  "I can't remember all we talked about," Rick muttered to himself. "Wetalked about everything and anything. Except codes. I can't rememberthat we ever talked about codes."

  He got up, noticing that the crew of builders were in their barge,returning to the mainland for the night. They were trucking materials toa point on the shore near Spindrift, using an old wood road, then takingthe stuff the rest of the way by barge.

  It was getting on to dinnertime. He took the woods path back, passing bythe new cottages. They were nearing completion, the outsides alreadyfinished. Beyond the cottages was the farm run by the Huggins family.Mr. Huggins was just herding the island's milk cows into the barn formilking.

  Rick kicked at a near-by tree. "Either I'm dumb or it isn't as simple aswe think it ought to be," he said aloud, then went on into the house.

  * * * * *

  Scotty and Barby had done no better. They gathered at the family tablewith long faces and Barby placed the disturbing cable in the middle ofthe table as a centerpiece.

  "If we look at it long enough, maybe we'll get inspiration," she said.

  Professor Julius Weiss, the only one of the three staff scientists whowas at home at the moment, picked up the cable and examined it.

  "A cipher, eh?" He adjusted his glasses. "It certainly lookscomplicated."

  "Any ideas?" Rick asked hopefully.

  The little mathematician shook his head. "No, Rick. I could give you thecube root of the square of the sum of the numbers, or anything likethat, but I'm afraid I wouldn't even know how to start breaking thecode." He added, "John probably could. He had some experience with codeswhile in the Navy, I believe."

  John was Professor John Gordon. He was on an extended trip to NewMexic
o, serving as a consultant to the Navy's guided missiles projects.The third scientist, Professor Hobart Zircon, was giving a five-weekseries of lectures in nuclear physics at Yale.

  "I'm afraid Professor Gordon is too far away to help us on this," Ricksaid.

  Mrs. Brant came in, bringing a heavily laden dish of fresh corn on thecob. Behind her trotted a shaggy little dog.

  Rick snapped his fingers. "Here, Diz."

  Dismal ran over and barked at his young master, then he rolled over onhis back and played dead, his only trick. Rick grinned. "Did you bringhim along as an adviser, Mom? I'll bet he'd be as good at solving thisas any of us."

  Mrs. Brant smiled. "From what your father told me, I think he might atthat. But why all the long faces? I think it's exciting getting a codemessage from Chahda. Why, this is the first time we've had a codeproblem on the island since the moon rocket."

  Mrs. Brant couldn't have caused a more sudden reaction had she tossed alighted firecracker into the middle of the roast.

  Barby knocked over her water glass.

  Scotty gasped, "Great grasshoppers! A book code!"

  Rick strangled on a sip of milk, and when he could get his breath again,he ran around the table to his mother, kissed her soundly and lifted herhand high in token of victory. "The new champ," he proclaimed. "Mom,you're a genius!"

  "But, Rick, I didn't say anything except...."

  "You said just enough, dear," Hartson Brant replied. "We all had theanswer right in that second, because you gave us a clue. Do you rememberthe code our former friend used when he was sending messages off theisland?"

  The "former friend" Hartson Brant referred to was a member of the staffwho had turned renegade and helped Manfred Wessel's gang in theirefforts to build a moon rocket, using the Spindrift design, in order towin the Stoneridge Grant of two million dollars. The traitor scientisthad used code messages to keep the gang informed of new developments onSpindrift while he had used the cloak of false friendship to slow up thebuilding of the Spindrift rocket.

  "He used a double code," Rick explained. "Part of it was a regularcipher, but the first step was a book code."

  "I do remember!" Mrs. Brant exclaimed. "He used a copy of that bookHartson's friend wrote. What was it? _Psychiatry Simplified._ The codewas numbers that gave the page of the book, and the position of the wordon the page, and unless you found the book, as Rick and Scotty did, youcouldn't break the code!"

  Barby jumped up in her excitement. "And I know what book Chahda wasusing!"

  The rest of the group spoke as one. "_The World Almanac!_"

  Scotty ran for the library, Rick on his heels.

  "We told him about that code," Scotty said. "Now I remember when, too.It was right after we got back from India, when we were showing himaround the lab."

  "I remember, too," Rick agreed. "We were telling him how the gang usedmy plane, with me flying it, to smuggle their coded messages, and heasked us about it because he had never heard of codes before!"

  They reached the shelf that held the _Almanac_ and stopped short.Because of the year-to-year news summaries in the famous annual, HartsonBrant had kept each edition as a reference source. There were over adozen of them on the shelf.

  "They're all different," Rick said. "The pages change each year. Whichone did he use?"

  Scotty's forehead furrowed. "Which one did he memorize? It was an oldone, but I can't remember the date."

  "Got it," Rick said. "Remember the letter L? The twelfth letter of thealphabet. It must be the 1912 edition."

  Scotty surveyed the shelf. "Which we don't have," he said.

  Rick groaned. "No!"

  Hartson Brant called from the dining room. "Haven't you solved thatcipher yet?"

  The boys walked dejectedly back to join the others. Rick explained thatthe right volume was missing. The Spindrift files just didn't go backthat far.

  "Sit down and eat your dinner," Hartson Brant said. He sliced roast forthem, his eyes thoughtful. "Something's wrong with your reasoning," hesaid, as he filled Rick's plate. "Would Chahda have a 1912 edition withhim in Singapore? I doubt it. More likely he'd have a more recent one."

  "But the letter L has to mean something," Barby protested.

  "What could it mean but twelve?" Rick asked, and the answer struck himbefore the words were out. He shouted, "I know! It could mean fifty! Lis the Roman numeral fifty."

  Barby clapped her hands. Scotty reached over and pounded Rick on theback.

  "That's it," Hartson Brant said approvingly. "I'll make a wager on it.Chahda used the 1950 edition."

  Rick pushed back his chair, but the scientist's voice stopped him.

  "Let's rest on our laurels, Rick. Finish dinner first, then we'll allretire to the library and work it out."

  Because they were burning with impatience, the three younger members ofthe Spindrift family did not enjoy the meal, but they made a pretense ofeating. Then, an eternity later, Hartson Brant took the last sip of hiscoffee and grinned at Rick. "Shall we get to it?"

  "Shall we!" Barby led the way, holding the cable high.

  The first part was easy. Since most pages in the _Almanac_ had threenumbers, they assumed that the first three numbers in each code groupreferred to the page. Similarly, they assumed that the second twonumbers referred to the line. That left two numbers for the position ofthe word on the line.

  With nervous fingers Rick turned to Page 521 of the 1950 edition andcounted down 30 lines. He hesitated over the subtitles, then decided tocount them too. At the proper line, he looked up at Scotty and Barby whowere watching over his shoulder.

  "But there are two columns."

  "Don't worry about the columns," Scotty advised. "I don't think Chahdawould pay any attention to the columns, because it would mean extranumbers in each group. Count right across and don't pay any attention tothe dividing line."

  Rick did so. "It doesn't come out right," he complained. "The number is39, but there are only 17 words on the whole line."

  Barby sighed. "Maybe we're wrong all the way around."

  "I don't think so," Hartson Brant said. He was sitting in a comfortablechair, smoking an after-dinner pipe. "The logic of the thing appeals tome. Do you suppose Chahda would know about nulls?"

  "What's a null?" Scotty asked.

  "In cryptography it's a number, or letter, thrown in for the sake ofappearance, or to confuse."

  "Chahda might know," Rick said. "That brown head of his is crammed fullof more odd chunks of information than you could imagine. But if there'sa null in this, which figure is it?"

  "Try it both ways," Barby urged. "Here, I'll do it." She counted acrossthe line. "The third word is 'seventeen.'" She wrote it down. "The ninthword is 'come.'"

  "Could be either," Scotty mused. "But 'come' sounds more likely. Let'stry the next group."

  That was 6231581. Rick turned to Page 623 and counted down 15 lines,including the title. However, he didn't count the page heading. Theheading was on the same line as the page number. Both were above a linedrawn across the top of the page, and it seemed sensible to start belowthe line.

  "There aren't 81 words on the lines," he said. "So that means anothernull, maybe. The first word is 'both' and the eighth word is 'may.'"

  Barby wrote them down. "It all makes sense," she pointed out. "It couldbe, 'Seventeen may,' or 'come both.'"

  "Keep going," Scotty urged. "Try another one."

  The third group gave them a choice of "Cheyenne," which seemed unlikely,or "bad."

  "He couldn't be talking about Cheyenne," Rick said. "The word must be'bad.' That means the first figure of the pair is the null, because it'sthe second figure that stands for 'bad.'"

  "Sounds reasonable," Scotty agreed. "Keep plugging."

  So far, the probable words were: _Come both bad._

  Page 276 in the fourth group turned out to be a table of atomic weights.Line 86 was the element tantalum. If the first figure of the last pairwas assumed to be a null, the word was the symbol for tantalum: "Ta."

>   Rick stared at it. "Something's wrong. This doesn't make sense."

  Barby asked impatiently, "How do we know?"

  Rick yielded and moved to the next group. It gave the word "rubles.""That's Russian money," he said.

  The trio looked at it in bewilderment, then Scotty suddenly let out ayell of laughter. "I've got it! Can't you see? 'Ta' and 'rubles' gotogether! 'Tarubles.' Troubles!"

  Then they were all howling with joy. Leave it to Chahda to dream upsomething like that, Rick thought. So far, the message made sense. _Comeboth, bad troubles._

  He turned the pages and counted feverishly. The sixth group gave "am,"the seventh "in."

  The eighth group gave the message an ominous tone.

  _Come both. Bad troubles. Am in danger._

  The scientists and Mrs. Brant were looking over Rick's shoulder now,too.

  The ninth group stopped them for a moment because the pair of figuresstanding for the word was 14. If the figure 1 was a null, the word was"the." But there were more than 14 words in the line, and the 14th was"my."

  Rick looked at the faces around him. "I think it's 'my' because he musthave had a reason for using nulls. If I were making up the code, I'd usethem because sometimes there are enough words in a line so you need twofigures and sometimes not. But you always have to put down two figuresso the groups will be even."

  "Good thinking," Rick's father complimented him. "Go ahead on thatbasis. But hurry up. The suspense is awful."

  There was a chorus of agreements.

  The next word was "boss."

  "He was working, then," Scotty guessed. "That must be it, if he has aboss."

  Rick hurried to the next group. It produced "Carl." Page 439, the 96thline, gave "Bradley." Then the boss's name was Carl Bradley.

  Hartson Brant gave a muffled exclamation. Scotty turned quickly. "Do youknow that name, Dad?"

  "Yes. But let's get the rest of the message. Quickly, Rick."

  The words appeared in rapid succession, with a pause now and then tosolve a new difficulty. Once, the lines across the columns were not evenand a ruler had to be laid across to find the word. Again, a nullappeared as the first number in the page group. Chahda had used itbecause the page was 51 and he needed a third figure to round out thegroup. That was easy to spot because the group read 951 and the book hadonly 912 pages.

  In the last series of groups Rick came across another double word like"tarubles." This time, "be" and "ware" combined to make "beware." Then,the very last word stopped them for a moment. It was "umbra."

  "What's that?" Scotty asked.

  "The shadow cast by the moon during an eclipse of the sun," Julius Weissanswered. "Or part of it, rather. There are two shadows. The umbra andthe penumbra."

  Barby ran for a dictionary and leafed through the pages quickly. "I haveit," she said. "Listen. It's from the Latin for 'shadow,' and it means'a shade or shadow.'"

  "Shadow it is," Rick said, and wrote it down. Then, slowly, he read thefull message to the serious group around him.

  COME BOTH. BAD TROUBLES. AM IN DANGER. MY BOSS, CARL BRADLEY, DISAPPEARED. GOVERNMENT WILL ASK SCIENTIFIC FATHER DO SPECIAL WORK. MUST TAKE. GET JOBS, MEET ME HONG KONG GOLDEN MOUSE. WATCH CHINESE WITH GLASS EYE, HE DANGEROUS. AND BEWARE LONG SHADOW.